Being asked for views and opinions

Occasionally, I am asked to give my views and opinions on various subjects and I find the exercise difficult, preferring to write about the views and opinions of others. This year, my Alma Mater has an important anniversary and, as part of the celebrations, the University invited Alumni to write short pieces under different headings, feeling that we had worthwhile things to say. This is what I came up with (using the headings that we were given).

Life's turning points

I was a Freshman in 1965/6 (that's me in the picture above, taken on a 1st year field trip). Many things stay in my memory of that year: arriving at the University; buying an undergraduate gown (yes, really); buying a University scarf (very 1960s); finding the first lectures and practical classes a bit scary; and making new "friends", some of whom I lost contact with after a day. It was a time of many changes and I was certainly aware that I had left home and that there were new experiences ahead. As the first member of my family to attend University, there was also a feeling of pride and an awareness of being part of an important institution.

After three years, I was ready for new challenges, but didn't want undergraduate years to end. They were that good.

Life's turning points

University courses delivered some major surprises. We covered the basics of the three science subjects that I had chosen during the first year, but this was made pleasurable because we were taught by experts in each field, all being interested in teaching. I found it thrilling to be introduced to areas of study about which I knew very little and one stand-out course was a series of lectures on the History of Science. We started with Greek philosophy, and my admiration for the original thinking of Democritus and Aristotle continues to this day. The course put the topics I studied into context and all degree programmes should do this. We can have the feeling that the contemporary view is the "correct" one and studying the history of a subject shows that this may, or may not, be the case.

Life's turning points

Small children seem so curious about the world around them and are always asking questions, some of them very difficult to answer. As we grow, the number of spoken questions becomes less and we find out more for ourselves or, if we are passive, we accept things that we are told. Information may come from a parent, a teacher, books, sources on the internet, or television and radio programmes. However, it is essential to retain a child-like curiosity, to question what we receive and to fight the passive response. That's what education is all about – the more we learn, the more there is to learn.

Work

Conventions are observed in the workplace and at social gatherings. Some of these are valuable, others just a matter of formality, but they give us a framework for interactions and for behaviour. There are also unnecessary conventions and we shouldn't be afraid to question them, just as we shouldn't be afraid of challenging widely-accepted viewpoints. Every individual is unique, and we all have our own views as a result: as long as we think out our position on any issue, we should trust our own judgement.

Health and wellbeing

In developed Western cultures, we are obsessed with health and ageing. In part, it comes from the knowledge that we are all going to die and we resist that idea, and the signs that death is getting closer. Our susceptibility to illnesses, and to ageing, is affected by our genes and the way that the products they code react within the environment, be that within a cell, an individual, or the world around us. Recent medical research seems to focus on genes and cells, often ignoring the wider environment. It could be argued that the research conducted in medical genetics will result in increased longevity, while the world beyond individual humans will become more and more impoverished. As we obsess about our own fears, we seem less interested in the environment in which we live and which supplies many of our needs, both physical and emotional.

Spirituality

We all have explanations for things that we don't understand: these might come in the theories of scientists, or the belief in a Superior Being. These two positions have been considered irreconcilable, but there are many scientists with strong religious beliefs. There are also many varieties of religion, all offering explanations for everything, but trouble results when the religion becomes organised and ceases to be solely personal. We've all had people knock at our door, whether in our homes, Dorm, or wherever we are living, to tell us about their views and why we should take their viewpoint. These proselytisers of organised religion are convinced they are right and, by implication, that those with other views are wrong. As we all know, this can lead to schism, family and community conflicts, and even wars. Shouldn't we accept that each individual is entitled to their own view and that what is right for one person might not be right for another?

Spirituality

Have you ever had the experience of listening to a piece of music and having a spine-tingling sensation and a feeling of being taken to another place? There are some pieces of music that do this for me over and over again, especially if I am in the right mood and listening intently. Can this experience be considered to be spiritual? The answer comes in whether one believes in the supernatural, or whether the deep feelings engendered are just the result of nerve impulses and chemicals travelling through one's body. I favour the latter explanation, but have no idea why some pieces of music have this effect and others not. Although I think we will never understand the nature of the mechanisms involved (some scientists probably think that we will), I don't feel the need to look for supernatural explanations.

Family

Having my own family was never a priority; nor was pushing ahead in a career. I knew that I was fascinated by Natural History and was delighted that this took me to some interesting places, with agreeable research colleagues. I feel very lucky to have been able to teach the subject and I have also been fortunate in that my wife certainly did want to have a family. The result is two wonderful children who have given me so much and who have gone on to successful independent lives. My son lives with his partner in a beautiful house in Islington and my daughter was married last autumn in a lovely ceremony in Norfolk. It took weeks to come down from the glowing feeling of the day and, as Bob Dylan remarked about parenthood in his Sign on the Window, "that must be what it's all about".

 

Fini...

“Natural History is the handmaid to the study of medicine and surgery”

Frank Buckland had a passion for Natural History. It developed from his earliest years and he was encouraged in his interest by both his mother and his father, the famous Dean of Westminster, Dr William Buckland. Frank was always inquisitive and enthusiastic and he was a gifted communicator on many topics in Natural History, both in articles and lectures. He is probably best known for being a member of the Acclimation Society, a group formed with the aim of importing, and farming, wild animals to provide food for humans. He had a highly developed taste for zoophagy, ¹ having eaten portions of several different animals at his father’s dinner parties. ²

After leaving Winchester College, Frank became a student at Christ Church, Oxford and, after studying Classics and Sciences, graduated with a BA in 1848, at the second attempt. Frank was not suited to formal study and examinations and, while at Christ Church, was more famed for his menagerie than for his diligence. The most famous of his pets was a bear named Tiglath Pileser (“Tig”) that was dressed in a cap and gown ² and eventually ended up in London Zoo ³ (without academic costume). On leaving Oxford, Frank decided to study medicine and entered St George’s Hospital in London, writing in July 1848: “My object in studying medicine (and may God prosper it!) is not to gain a name, money, and high practice, but to do good to my fellow-creatures and assist them in the hour of need”. ² After training, he became a surgeon in the Life Guards, but, after failing to gain a promotion, resigned to become a full-time writer and lecturer (he had kept up both activities while in the army), and then Fisheries Inspector.

Frank Buckland wrote these interesting paragraphs in The Preface of the First Series of his Curiosities of Natural History:

Without the knowledge of the structure and physiology of the lower members of the animal kingdom, it would be difficult rightly to understand many functions of the human economy; and much light has been thrown upon the art of healing by the study of the lower links in the chain of animal life.

I would wish it, therefore, to be understood, that the following pages have not been written to the neglect of purely professional subjects of investigation. It has been acknowledged by many of our greatest medical men, that Natural History is the handmaid to the study of medicine and surgery.. ⁴

It should be stressed that Frank Buckland was a Creationist and his ideas on training in medicine and surgery were not influenced by thoughts that structure and function had evolved (and, although there was discussion of evolution at the time, the lines were written two years before Darwin published his hugely influential ..The Origin of Species..).

Many medical discoveries have been made, and continue to be made, after investigations in Natural History. The development of drugs from chemicals extracted from microorganisms (e.g. penicillin, discovered in 1928) and plants (e.g. aspirin, first prepared in the 1850s, but with the effects of willow bark known for millennia) are well known, and ethnobotany has been a rich source of information. In addition, many types of animals provide analogues for the study of systems in humans (e.g. research during the mid-Twentieth Century on the optic nerves of the squid has provided information on the functioning of nerve-muscle systems). Animals are also used widely as test beds for assessing treatments and in studies of the expression of genes that are also found in humans. However, this is moving rather far forward from the time when Frank Buckland wrote the second paragraph quoted above and he was also referring to research in Zoology, Anatomy and Physiology. Frank tended not to be precise in the use of language.

Natural History covers organisms of all kinds and, in the mid-Nineteenth Century, involved observations using microscopes and the human eye - in situ, in cages, in aquarium tanks, and in other forms of enclosure. This is quite different to contemporary medical research, which seems to focus on internal mechanisms during an era when anthropocentricity and determinism dominate our thinking. Yet the wider environment also has an essential role to play in health and welfare.

Social and physical surroundings are important in the incidence of diseases of many kinds. This applies not only to developing countries, but also to the developed World, with cities like London having some districts with large adverse effects of environment on health. ⁵ On an individual scale, there are many examples of surroundings affecting health. It is accepted that being able to pet animals has a beneficial effect on the recovery of patients and the same is true of peaceful and beautiful natural locations. Pharmaceutical, surgical and other investigative approaches are essential in modern medicine, but a love of Nature may also aid healing, as it leads us away from introspection. Appreciating the huge diversity of plants and animals, and their inter-relationships with each other and with the environment, can also be an aid in meditative therapies, such as mindfulness. ⁶

If Natural History (in its widest context) really is the handmaid to the study of medicine and surgery, how much time is given to these aspects of the care of patients when training today’s doctors and surgeons?

¹ Lynn Barber (1980) The Heyday of Natural History 1820-1870. London, Jonathan Cape.

² George C. Bompas (1885) Life of Frank Buckland. London, Smith, Elder & Co.

³ G. H. O. Burgess (1967) The Curious World of Frank Buckland. London, John Baker.

⁴ Francis T. Buckland (1857) Curiosities of Natural History. London, Richard Bentley.

⁵ Michael Marmot and Mai Stafford (2005) Places, People and Socio-Economc Differences in Health. In:  London’s Environment: Prospects for a Sustainable World City (ed. Julian Hunt). London, Imperial College Press.

⁶ Shamish Alidina (2010) Mindfulness for Dummies. Chichester, John Wiley.